AI Search Studies
Original AI Search research from OtterlyAI
Each AI Search study analyzes how brands and websites get cited across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot. We run real GEO experiments, share the data, and report what moves AI visibility and what does not. Browse the studies below for evidence-based Generative Engine Optimization insights you can apply to your own content.
AI Search Studies
GEO Experiments
ChatGPT Ads Study: 76.4% of Commercial Answers Carry an Ad, and the Leaders Buy None
Paid ads now sit inside ChatGPT’s commercial answers, and the paid layer does not look the same in any two categories. OtterlyAI measured OpenAI’s paid Ads and product Shopping Card appearances across different industries in the United States, then mapped who is buying the slots, how often, and where the advertised brands diverge from the […]
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AI Search Studies
GEO Experiments
Claude Citation Study Reveals What Actually Gets Cited
Claude has become one of the most widely used AI assistants for research, comparison, and decision-making queries, and like every AI Search engine it answers by pulling from, and citing, sources across the open web. For brands, that raises a practical question: when Claude composes an answer, which kinds of sources does it actually reach […]
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AI Search Studies
GEO Experiments
1 in 8 Social Media AI Citations Point to LinkedIn: AI Search Study by OtterlyAI
LinkedIn surpassed 1.3 billion registered members in January 2026, with roughly 310 million monthly active users. It is also one of the most cited social sources in AI Search. That makes LinkedIn more than a professional network. It is a working part of AI Search Optimization. OtterlyAI analyzed 1,310,455 LinkedIn AI citations to understand what […]
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AI Search Studies
GEO Experiments
OtterlyAI’s Research Methodology: How We Design Correct Experiments
Setting a golden standard to run GEO experiments for the marketing community. This document explains how. A Note on How We Write About Research Disclaimer: OtterlyAI follows the structured research methodology of Kohavi et al, which is described in this document. However, our primary audience is marketing professionals, not statisticians. Our published experiment articles are written […]
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AI Search Studies
GEO Experiments
Are Analyst Relations Sites Important for AI Visibility? How Gartner Dominates 81.7% of Citations While Blocking 5 Major AI Crawlers
10 Analyst Firms, 1M+ URLs: One Firm Owns the Citations, and It Is Not the Research You Think Gartner. Forrester. IDC. The big three names in industry analyst research influence trillions in annual enterprise IT spending decisions. For four decades, their Magic Quadrants, Waves, and MarketScapes have shaped how enterprise buyers pick vendors. So when […]
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AI Search Studies
GEO Experiments
The URL AI Citation Study 2026
1 Million URLs Studied: Which URL Structures Gets You Cited The Most on AI Search URLs are the first signal AI Search engines see, before any content loads. Shorter URLs are “better.” Descriptive slugs “help.” Clean canonical structure “signals authority.” These conventions carry over from traditional SEO, where URL attributes have measurable influence on rankings. […]
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AI Search Studies
GEO Experiments
We’re Running Live GEO Experiments And You Can Follow Along
Explore All GEO Experiments & AI Search Case Studies You can download the latest version of the experiment sheet below. It gets updated every week with new experiments as we test them, so bookmark this page or check back regularly to follow our progress. 👉 View GEO Experiment/Studies (Google Sheets) Weekly GEO Experiments: What We’re […]
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AI Search Studies
The YouTube Citation Study 2026
OtterlyAI’s YouTube GEO Study: What Actually Gets Your Videos Cited by AI Search YouTube has over 2.7 billion monthly active users and consistently ranks among the top 10 most cited domains in AI-generated search responses. That makes it more than a social media channel. It’s become an essential part of AI Search Optimization. OtterlyAI analyzed […]
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AI Search Studies
Real vs Estimated Prompts: I Analyzed 100s of Real ChatGPT Queries
Two questions come up every time I talk about AI search with marketing teams: “How do I find real prompts from real people?” And the skeptic’s follow-up: “Why should I even bother optimizing for estimated prompts?” Fair questions. So I ran an experiment to find out. Study Methodology About This Research: We analyzed hundreds of […]
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AI Search Studies
What Pharma Brands Reveal About AI Search: Insights from komm.passion | Team Farner Citation Study
Our German agency partner komm.passion | Team Farner just published something interesting. They analyzed how the five highest-grossing pharmaceutical products appear across AI search platforms in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They used OtterlyAI to track citations across ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overview, and Perplexity. The results confirm what we’ve been seeing in other industries, with […]
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AI Search Studies
Two Different Googles: 30,000+ AI Citations Across AI Mode and AI Overviews Play By Separate Rules
Google search is no longer a single AI system with a single rulebook. A study by OtterlyAI reveals that Google is quietly running two parallel AI search experiences: AI Overviews, which are the familiar AI summaries at the top of search results, and AI Mode, the new AI-powered chat-like search interface. In this study, we […]
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